What indigenous peoples and local communities can expect from COP 16
Colombia, the host of the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference, is committed to ensuring the widest possible participation in what has been planned as a “COP de la gente” (COP of the people in Spanish). The city of Cali will see the largest Green Zone in the history of the Convention, with more than 350,000 square meters allocated to over 1,000 events involving tens of thousands of participants from Colombia and the world. Within the Blue Zone, 314 side-events and eight forums will amplify the voices of the people at the COP of the people. For indigenous peoples and local communities, who will be represented in both zones, COP 16 carries special significance.
Article 8(j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) contains important language on the need to respect, preserve and maintain the knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities that embody traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), the world’s masterplan to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, which COP 15 adopted in December 2022, also acknowledges the crucial role of indigenous peoples and local communities as custodians of biodiversity and as partners in its conservation, restoration and sustainable use.
Here are three ways in which COP 16 carries special significance for indigenous peoples and local communities around the world:
- This will be a whole-of-society COP
Taking part in COP 16 alongside parliamentarians, business and finance professionals, environmental defenders, women and youth activists and many other actors of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, the representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities will contribute to a whole-of-society dialogue about policies, corporate strategies and individual actions that can bend current biodiversity loss trajectories and set the world on a path to living in harmony with nature.
The KMGBF and its 23 action targets that must be achieved by 2030 will provide the backdrop to the forthcoming deliberations in Cali. The outcome will feed into what is expected to be a particularly well attended High-Level Segment under the theme of “Peace with nature”.
- The seeds of peace with nature can be found in traditional knowledge
Peace with nature is the theme that Colombia, the host country, crafted for COP 16. Indigenous peoples and local communities in Colombia and around the world have lived in harmony with nature for millennia. Their traditional knowledge holds important lessons that the world must heed as we collectively seek viable ways to reconcile socio-economic progress with the health of the natural foundation that sustains all life on Earth.
COP 16 will examine progress achieved in the alignment of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), including national targets, with the KMGBF. Representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities will have opportunities to engage with Parties on the way in which traditional knowledge is integrated into NBSAPs—the primary vehicles of implementation at the national level. Their participation in translating the targets of the KMGBF into nationally appropriate policies, regulations, administrative measures and local actions is key.
- Indigenous peoples and local communities are on the COP 16 agenda, literally
The Working Group on Article 8(j), established under the Convention, constitutes the main forum in which indigenous voices are heard. In Cali, Parties will consider Item 14 of the COP 16 provisional agenda, which pertains to the implementation of Article 8(j) and includes a proposal for the adoption of a new programme of work and other provisions aimed at enhancing the role of indigenous peoples and local communities within the CBD. Possible options for institutional arrangements to support the implementation of the new programme of work, when adopted, will be considered.
“The CBD Secretariat remains committed to pursuing efforts with Parties to ensure meaningful participation of indigenous peoples and local communities and the adequate integration of their traditional knowledge systems both in process and outcomes,” said Astrid Schomaker, the Executive Secretary of the CBD, who spoke at the World Summit on Traditional Knowledge related to Biodiversity held on 29 August 2024 in Bogota.
More information:
Article 8(j) - Traditional Knowledge, Innovations and Practices
Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework